so, yup, pedro the lion and low in columbus last night.

first, the venue. the wexner center on OSU's campus is far and away the best concert venue i've ever been to. that's where i saw explosions in the sky, too. it's clean and classy. the employees are nice. the sound is good. and they're in it for the art, not for stealing little kids' money. this concert last night was on the stage of the theater. that is, we were on the stage, behind the curtain, and the stage for the concert was set up backstage, more/less. i realize that doesnt make any sense whatsoever. it was kinda weird, but really awesome.

next, the music. pedro the lion opened. this was the first i had seen him, as i said previously, since right after control was released. he's got a band of a more permanent nature now, which i think is a good thing for him. frank lenz on drums is absolutely amazing. the guy's got a laundry list of a resume, and for good reason. he knows what he's doing. the set list was pretty great. very diverse. all the songs i wanted to hear accept for secret of the easy yoke, which i still have yet to hear a full-band version of. he played criticism as inspiration, which was a first for me, but they cut it short and didnt play the long instrumental interlude in the middle, which was disappointing. songs from every full-length. i was pleased. the bass wasnt loud enough, nor the backup vocals, but it was good all in all.

low was incredible. why have i never listened to this band? they were simple yet genius and extreeeemely beautiful. i wish their catalog didnt consist of 15 or so CDs. how do i choose? where do i start? seriously, i was blown away. they were a very witty group too, their in-between-song-banter was very great. what they lacked in rockingness they made up for in humor.

i tend to lose more respect for david bazan every time i see him. that's kind of sad for me, because i've always really admired his music and his opinions. last night he said some negative things about christians, which is nothing new, but this time it was more harsh and broad and all-inclusive than ever. i was included in what he was saying, and i suppose it just offended me. i dont get offended about many of the things he says and does, but when he is saying stuff that includes me, it is an unfair stereotype and i think it's fair to take offense to that. i didnt take offense because it was the truth and the truth hurts, i took offense because it wasnt the truth, and there's a big difference in that. i think a lot of his thoughts are worthwhile and very true and valid, but they way he communicates them lacks taste.

in case you've never seen him, he does this thing where he answers people's questions in between songs. he actually has a way of not really answering any of the questions, which sometimes is funny, and sometimes is just annoying.

ive never been one to idolize rock stars. i've always viewed them as humans. i dont go all teenage-girl-crazy on them or anything. but i always admire them a lot and maybe sometimes too much. and i think that's true for everybody. this whole question-and-answer thing is a little ridiculous. we want to know what david bazan's favorite movie is just so we can see if it's our favorite movie too. and if it's not, we'll force ourselves to like it just so we can feel a little bit cooler. we strive to validate ourselves in such interestingly pathetic ways. what im saying is this question-and-answer thing could be cool, but it turns out as just a way for people to make themselves feel cool. one guy asked him how the weather was in whatever town david bazan lives in, and it was clearly just a way to let everyone there know that he knew where david bazan lives. what an insecure people we are. he's just another person like you and me who happens to write good songs.

i realized last night i'm not a good song writer because i'm not a good fiction writer. songs that arent fiction are usually, in the christian circles, preachy, and in other circles either cliche or pretentious. songs that are fiction, if done well, are beautiful. i'm not a good song writer because i'm not a good fiction writer.

we went to waffle house on the way home. it was the first time i had ever been there. why didnt i discover this place my freshman year instead of my senior year? it was amazing! we walked in the place at 1:00 AM and the entire restaurant said "Hi!" to us. everyone was so nice! it was cheap, the food was good, and it was a great atmosphere. when the waitress went to throw away joe's grits, she missed the basket and said "i missed the trashcan!" at that point i said my new classic line as joe would call it, "wouldnt be the first time!" and she loved it! she couldnt stop laughing. then i had my arm around joe at one point (merely for elbow room) and the other old-lady-waitress said, "ooooo togetherness!" and it was the funniest thing ive heard in a long time. i giggled a lot after that. columbus has banned smoking in every public building within city limits, and all the customers and staff at the waffle house were preeeetty upset about it. one waitress said that mickey mouse and donald duck could do a better job of running the city. now that's a bold statement! i felt sorry for them. if people want to smoke, let em!

anyways, that was last night. we rolled into campus a little after 4:00AM. instead of going to bed for 2 hours and then waking up, i decided to deliver the newspapers right away. it was weird tromping around campus and breaking into girls dorms at 4:30 in the morning. i finished that up as quick as possible and hit the sack and skipped my silly math class and woke up around 10:30 and had a pretty good day and here we are.

all of this is probably more than you wanted to know, and you didnt read it anyway, most likely, but someday i'll look back on this post and remember a fun night that was worth the lack of sleep and the seventeen dollars.